Wrexham-based Pendine Park has become one of only a handful of social care companies across the UK to receive the coveted Investors in People Gold Award.

The IIP success marked a unique double for the organisation.

Pendine Park is the only care organisation in Britain to achieve the accolade while also having the ISO 9002 quality assurance accreditation.

It was the first nursing home in the United Kingdom to be awarded ISO 9002 exactly 20 years ago, or British Standard 5750 as it was known then.

The IIP prize was presented to proprietors Mario Kreft and his wife, Gill, at a special ceremony by Wrexham AM Lesley Griffiths, Wales’ health minister.

Mario said: “It was a proud day for Mario and Gill, who was the main architect of the detailed IIP strategy which took in the whole organisation.

As part of the process, more than 80 members of staff were interviewed privately by the independent IIP assessor.

Mr Kreft said: “To get the gold award you have to meet at least 165 of the 200 criteria and the team met a 178 of them.

“This is not about having a kite mark, it's about creating an ethos and a structure that all of the team can believe in so that we can actually translate this to better services through better training and development opportunities for our people.”

He added: “This is a very rare accolade and we're extremely pleased to be joining a very elite group of organisations in the UK.

“Our clear purpose and vision is very simple. It’s about ensuring the best care for people, the best possible development and training opportunities for our staff, and importantly, being a sector leader, and I think today has shown that we are delivering on all of those for objectives.”

Mrs Griffiths said the prizes were “richly deserved”.

“This is a tribute to everybody who works at Pendine Park because this award could not have been achieved without their commitment.”

Residents’ representative Alan Hassall added: “The residents are helped to do things that they wouldn’t have been able to do on their own, and I think it’s lovely.”